Frustration Etched All Over Rockies

It was only minutes after the merciful final out of the Coors Field All-Star game that the host Colorado Rockies resumed their favorite activity of this disappointing season.

They were back pointing fingers, the longest and sharpest delivered by Dante Bichette, who told Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla “me and Vinny Castilla are the only two guys in Colorado who show up every day to play.”

Reflecting, perhaps, on the hornet’s nest his comments would produce in the clubhouse, Bichette offered a revision the next day.

“I shouldn’t have just singled out me and Vinny,” he said. “There are more players who show up and are prepared to play. But I think as a club, we’re not always prepared to play every day to win the battle. And that needed to be said.”

Bichette, who leads the NL in average and hits, may have provided a second-half stimulus. Then again, he may not be around long enough to see.

The question of whether to trade Bichette and/or Ellis Burks before the July 31 deadline while the team still has an outside shot at a wild card is one of the toughest facing the Rockies.

In the larger picture, owner Jerry McMorris continues to say there will be no decision on General Manager Bob Gebhard and Manager Don Baylor until after the season. “I know the fans and media are frustrated,” he said during the all-star festivities. “I’m frustrated too. But it is easier to tear something down than to build it up. We have two good baseball men who have been loyal to our ownership group. This is a time that they have to have every opportunity to correct the performance of the team.”

A midseason correction of the magnitude the Rockies face may be too much.

Oakland A’s Manager Art Howe, a possible replacement for Baylor and an all-star coach, offered the view that giving up Andres Galarraga and Walt Weiss in one swoop simply represented “the loss of too much professionalism and talent.”

Weiss went to Atlanta as a free agent because the Rockies wanted him to move from shortstop to second base. Galarraga went to the Braves as a free agent because the Rockies wouldn’t give him a three-year contract.

Both returned as all-stars--Galarraga with 28 homers, which was more than Atlanta’s annual home run leader had hit in an entire season in five of the last 10 years.

Baylor, sharing the clubhouse again with Weiss and Galarraga as an all-star coach, said any professional would be embarrassed and angered by the Rockies’ performance but . . . “I don’t lay awake worrying about losing my job. If that’s going to come, it’s going to come. I worry about how to play better that particular day. and I try to be positive going into each day.”

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Orel Hershiser, at 39, reached the all-star break with 110 innings. His $3.45-million contract with the San Francisco Giants calls for $10,000 per inning for every inning over 155. The Giants have a 1999 option at $3.25 million, but Hershiser can void it and become a free agent if he gets to 176 innings. However, he wants to stay.

“I would love to train under Dusty Baker if I ended up being a coach some day,” he said. “I would love to train under [General Manager] Brian Sabean if I ended up wanting to do something in the front office. I would love to train under any of the broadcasters if that’s a possibility. But I’m not someone who is looking to replace anybody because we’ve got experts in all the right spots.”

Just putting it out there, of course.